1905 Russian Revolution

The 1905 Russian Revolution was a failed revolution launched against the Russian Empire by laborers, peasants, and supporters of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (the SRs) and the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in 1905. The revolution was triggered by the government's failure to solve the agricultural problems faced by farmers, the government's poor treatment of ethnic minorities such as Poles and Jews, the failure of the economic system in Russia (in socialist France, workers were paid 110 francs a month, while Russians made just 16 rubles, a far smaller amount), and rising student radicalism. The revolution began with strikes by arms factory workers during the Russo-Japanese War, and naval mutinies broke out in Sevastopol, Vladivostok, and Kronstadt after the Battle of Tsushima showed the weakness of the Imperial Russian Navy against the nation's rivals. Over 2,000 sailors died in the suppression of the mutiny on the battleship Potemkin, which would be interned in Romania after escaping from Odessa. The government would suppress the riots, strikes, and some "soviet councils" established, although the SRs would continue to assassinate government officials until 1907. The government responded to the revolution with the "October Manifesto" and the restoration of the State Duma parliament, and Russia transitioned to become a constitutional monarchy. However, great socialist thinkers such as Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky, who had taken part in the 1905 revolution, would return to lead the 1917 Russian Revolution and topple the government of Czar Nicholas II of Russia.